Our scale businesses continued to successfully scale-up: LGIM’s external net inflows were £44bn, taking us to almost £1 trillion in AUM. Customer focus and good value made us market leaders in our chosen UK business segments, while successfully expanding in the US where LGR broke new ground, completing fifteen Pension Risk Transfer deals.

Our transformative, innovative businesses treat disruption as a privilege and a responsibility. Many of our initiatives are changing markets in the customer’s favour, including SmartQuote, Smart Pensions, SalaryFinance, our housing businesses, Pemberton and NTR.

We remain confident that our unique business model, strong management team, collaborative culture, and strategic focus can deliver further growth in 2018 and beyond.”

Earnings per share is calculated by dividing profit after tax attributable to equity holders of the Company, by the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during the period. Represents profit before tax attributable to equity holders. Excluding mortality releases and one-off US tax benefit, 2017 EPS is 23.10p (2016:21.22p).

The metrics within the Group’s financial highlights are defined in the glossary, which includes Alternative Performance Measures, on pages 93 to 99 to this report.